Experimental Investigation of Minimum Fluidization Velocity of Micron Size Particles in Presence of Sound

The fluidization behavior of silica gel was tested in a fluidized bed under different sound pressure levels and sound frequencies. It has been found that the particle mixtures can be fluidized smoothly with sound assistance at low sound frequency owing to the sound energy disrupting large size of agglomerates. The minimum fluidization velocity was found to decrease with increasing sound frequency. It then increases at the same sound pressure level. With the increase in sound pressure level, the minimum fluidization velocity gets reduced substantially at a given sound frequency. Bed expansion was observed in presence of sound intensity.